Day 1

Opening Activity: Why Leadership Matters in Advancement
How well do you understand the root causes of performance or retention issues in your shop? How often do you assess the costs of not investing in leadership development for your team? These are complex questions to answer, so we’ll begin the summit by tapping into the collective knowledge of the room to discuss these questions and you’ll begin thinking about how your shop approaches leadership development.

 

Exploring Multiple Models and Approaches to Leadership Development
Leaders and managers play a critical role in establishing trustworthy and transparent learning environments so that your talent can thrive, even in times of change. There are multiple ways to build the capacity of leaders in your shop, and your approach will vary depending on whether you’re just starting out or building on an established, cohort-based program. In this session, we’ll walk you through various decision points, including:

• Who the program is meant to serve (aspiring supervisors, gift officers, other leaders).
• The level of the program (for new and aspiring leaders, mid-level, or advanced).
• The outcomes you hope to achieve.
• Where the program should live on campus.
• Whose support and sponsorship you will need (and how to get it).

 

Reflection and Work on Roadmaps 
After introducing you to your roadmaps, we’ll use this part of the day to synthesize the most important takeaways, so that you can capture and document your next steps.

 

Activity: Exploring Future Skillsets of Advancement Leaders
Higher education is changing dramatically, and the skills required to lead advancement shops in the future may differ from the skills prized by current leaders. In this session, we’ll engage in a horizon thinking exercise and lead you through a separate exercise to prioritize a set of additional leadership concepts and skills for potential program inclusion. Both exercises are easily replicated on your campus so that large groups of stakeholders can help you to shape your leadership program.

 

Case Study
In our first case study, we’ll examine examples of successful leadership development programs and explore how they originated, how they established their goals, and how you can adopt elements of the program that fit within your unit.

 

Debrief the Five Paths to Leadership℠ Self-Assessment
It can be difficult to develop or grow leadership programs for others in your unit if you don’t first understand your own leadership tendencies and styles. In this session, you’ll better understand your leadership strengths and natural preferences related to solving problems, communicating, and collaborating when we debrief your Five Paths to Leadership℠ Assessment results. This self-assessment will help you to better leverage your strengths, mitigate potential weaknesses, and learn how to build strong interpersonal and team relationships, critical for leading effectively both formally and informally in teams.

 

Rotating Panels: Best Practice Sharing
One of the most powerful takeaways from this program is the community of practice that we build with practitioners who are doing this work every day. We’ll create dedicated and structured time for sharing best practices of what you’ve learned—what resources have been the most valuable, strategies for creating engagement and interaction, tools and assessments that have been well received, and more.

 

HireEd Careers (HEC) Networking Reception
Here, you will have the opportunity to ask any questions related to the topics covered on Day One before we transition into an informal reception sponsored by Academic Impressions’ sister company, HireEd Careers. This casual reception will give you the chance to decompress, have a drink and an appetizer, and spend time connecting with colleagues in similar roles.

 

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Day 2

Career Conversations: A Proven 4-Step Model
Supervisors and leaders often avoid having career conversations for many reasons, including a lack of upward mobility, fear of raising expectations that can’t be met, or, worse, they just don’t know how to have these discussions. Academic Impressions has developed a “4-Step Career Conversations Model” that you can easily share with leaders back on campus. We’ll cover both what the discussion should entail and how to have an effective career conversation with an employee.

 

Activity: Career Conversations Carousel
Through a structured activity, you will have the opportunity to share and explore ideas to meet individuals and aspiring/seasoned leaders where they are on their professional journeys. Whether your employees are aspiring to senior- or mid-level leadership roles or desiring to move to a different area of the shop, you’ll have an opportunity to share and explore experiences to help them to grow and develop.

 

Case Study
In our second deep-dive case study, we’ll examine programs that are currently up and running and how they model best practices for career pathing growth conversations. We’ll explore how these initiatives originated, who manages them, and what kinds of results they yield in terms of improving staff recruitment and retention efforts.

 

Reflection and Work on Roadmaps 
We’ll use this part of the day to synthesize the most important takeaways from the summit this far, so that you can capture and document your next steps.

 

Developing High-Performing Teams
We’ll spend time learning about the characteristics of high-performing teams and then take a deep dive into learning and applying strategies to support the development of these teams at your shop. We will explore various concepts that influence team culture such as psychological safety, trust, collaboration, and team cohesion.

 

Finalizing Your Roadmap & Summit Wrap-Up
Following our discussion, you’ll work in pairs or small groups to finalize your next steps for taking the wealth of ideas and information you’ve gained back to your campus to put into practice.